Google has just launched an interesting initiative where they have commissioned artists to design igoogle search pages.
These new designs are provided by artists including fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, Nigo of The Bathing Ape, Dolce & Gabbana, and more.
Now you can put the work of world-class artists and innovators on your personalized Google homepage. Then add your choice of news, email, games, and more for a page that’s as useful as it is beautiful. — (Via Google)
Last night in Brooklyn, Louis Vuitton officially revealed its new design; ‘monogramouflage’ created in collaboration between Takashi Murakami, Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton.
The Louis Vuitton products are for sale as part of the largest retrospective of Murakami ever staged; and the products are intended to be an integral part of the exhibition.
Speaking about the inclusion of the Louis Vuitton shop within the exhibition, Takashi Murakami stated, “The shop project is not a part of the exhibition; rather it is the heart of the exhibition itself. It holds at once the aspects that fuse, reunite, and then recombine the concept of the readymade. The Louis Vuitton project brings to life a wonderful new world.” — (Via Brooklyn Eagle)
Fans of Louis Vuitton will be familiar with Murakami’s cute alien designs from his previous collaborations with the brand.
However, they might be a bit less familiar with his rather more adult themes, such as, sperm lassoo boy… — (Via The Gothamist) ** NOT ENTIRELY SAFE FOR WORK
Philippe Starck announced last week that he will retire in two years time. But he also took the opportunity to savage the entire idea of design, and to express regret for many of the designs which have made him so famous…
“I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact. Everything I designed was unnecessary. I will definitely give up in two years’ time. I want to do something else, but I don’t know what yet. I want to find a new way of expressing myself … design is a dreadful form of expression.” — (Via Breitbart)
Although to some, Philippe Starck had over-extended his design hand, in a Pierre Cardin-esque way, it is still a surprising comment, with so many of his designs - from juice squeezers to toothbrushes - still on sale.
Starck believes that the role of the designer will be replaced by the personal coach, the gym trainer, and the diet consultant. But there are three things in which Starck still believes; love, mattresses and a “good pillow”. So if he is restless at any of the world’s Starck hotels, he can always find comfort in a Conrad Hotel with its new Pillow proliferation program.
For 10 years, the Bless collective based in Paris and Berlin have been inspiring alternative thinking in the luxury industry. To celebrate their first decade of existence, Sternberg Press has published a retrospective of the story so far…
Bless came to fame in the winter of ‘97/‘98, when the models of a Martin Margiela fashion show wore Bless wigs made out of fur. Heralded as one of fashion’s most innovative designers, the Paris and Berlin-based duo quickly refused to capitalize on one milieu. Constantly investigating the boundaries of style, Bless slides from fashion to beauty, interior decoration to art exhibition, collaboration with other brands to stylized advertising. Their production, which sits on the fine line between art object and design, high function and high fashion, is always unique and marked by the recycling and adaptation of unexpected items put to use in a totally new way. — (Via Sternberg Press)
The Emperor Dragonfly Machine (Via Etsy)
Refrigerated bathroom cabinets (Via Robern)
The scented ink from Montblanc (Via Goldarths)
The barnacles for your home (Via Plodes)
After the obviousness of the D&G, then Prada phone, and the ugliest cellphone ever invented, comes the surprisingly good Chanel phone (Via Yahoo)
The new Balenciaga flagship store London just opened in London. From the outside, on Mount Street, it’s very unassuming… However, the interior is overwhelmingly assuming… Images via WWD
The opening of the store is another collaboration between Balenciaga designer Ghesquière together with French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, and legendary lighting designer Benoit Lalloz. ”
The idea for the boutique is similar to the themes which lay behind the New York store, as outlined in 2003 in New York magazine.
He makes you think that every shop should look like a garage. “The space is about the meeting between clothes and art,” he says, and he manages to sound neither silly nor pretentious. Plus, it’s true: The store has been conceived and designed not by an architect and a marketer but by a designer and an artist. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster uses video and film, and she had made many an installation, but she describes her work as using “environments.” At last year’s Documenta, she created a park that combined various elements from places she has visited: rose bushes and boulders from Mexico, a telephone booth from Rio de Janeiro.
“I knew Nicolas’s clothes before I met him,” Gonzalez-Foerster says, “and so I was excited at his idea that we should work together. We met and clicked immediately. There has been this fashion lately for stores to reference a gallery and to create a white cube. It is a very elegant system, but we wanted to go beyond that. We both thought there must be something else.”
Certainly, Gonzalez-Foerster and Ghesquière’s Balenciaga store prove that there is a good deal else. Not least the clothes: The spring collection is full of tiny minidresses, scuba-inspired tops, and the jersey pants and cycle shorts that insiders have been trying to get their hands on since October.
The Sella bicycle stool; a shooting stick for the next generation (Via Places And Places)
Ted Noten’s rather excellent transparent hard plastic bags (Via Ted Noten)
The $12,000 foldaway bike from Pinel & Pinel and Brompton (Via Vivre)
The terrifyingly useful V1 chair (Via TheV1Chair)
The iPod headphones, scaled up 500 times, and reimagined as speakers (Via WorldwideFred)
The silver champagne straws from Christophle (Via Vivre)
The enormous indoor pebble cushions (Via Livingstones)
A toothsome battle played out in the UK courts this week as Lacoste challenged a Gloucestershire dentist over their use of an alligator smile in its logo… The court favored the dentists to the tune of around $3,000…
“The U.K. Intellectual Property Office confirmed that it had rejected an appeal by Lacoste SA against an earlier decision, saying the dentists’ crocodile would not confuse consumers. The ruling was issued last month.
Lacoste argued the logo was too similar to the famous crocodile it has been putting on its shirts since 1933. Two-time Wimbledon winner Rene Lacoste, who was nicknamed “the Crocodile,” first put the logo on the breast of shirts he designed for playing tennis. His short-sleeved cotton collared T-shirts are now a wardrobe staple around the world.
The dentists said they chose the crocodile as their logo because the reptile has so many teeth.” — (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The wording of the decision makes for amusing reading, particularly this part…
“I am not convinced that the average consumer would want to share the characteristics of reptiles but to the extent that they are known for having many functional, perhaps even efficient, teeth, the use of a reptile has what may be considered desirable associations with dental services.”
Volvo is inspired by the heritage of Sweden to create a distinct point of view on luxury with the launch of the Volvo S80.
Quiet beauty, rather than flashy bling. That is the essence of Swedish luxury. Designer entrepreneur and trend analyst Mathilda Tham jumps in a Volvo S80 Executive to go looking for the roots of Swedish style - and ends up in nature and tranquility. Luxury, throughout history, has stood for that which is rare and precious. In Western affluent society, with its abundance of consumer goods, it follows that commodities without a price tag, such as the experience of simplicity, silence, time, care and trust have become the new luxury. With the Volvo S80 Executive, Volvo Car Corporation enters the luxury segment. — (PADDOCK TALK)
